Cascade Sun (Periculum Piscis)
Cascade Sun ''(Periculum Piscis) '' In the Tropical Reefs of Wallace II, this small parasitic vertebrate swims in search of larger creatures to attach to, it's not picky at all and will sink it's modified mouth into ANYTHING it can find and once it's attached, it's stuck on there firmly and won't be easy for the larger creature to shake off. Their filter feeding ancestors once used their proboscises to grab plankton and algae from the water and eat it by swimming with their proboscises hanging out from the underside of their armored bodies and would retract them into their mouth to eat, cleaning off their hairy proboscises and then would release them to hang in the water as they swam but as years went by, they slowly fused their stomach and proboscises together to hunt more effectively to gather more plankton and algae from the surrounding water and then retract their stomach back into their bodies to digest their filled belly. As time continued to progress and oceans in Wallace II got more hostile, they left their old open ocean homes, got smaller and became the Cascade Sun seen today in the Coral Reef of Wallace II. They migrate to Brackish waters in Rainforests and attach their transparent eggs to the leaves of Marine Polyspeculates and will leave the eggs there to grow, returning to the long journey to the Ocean where the adults will spend the rest of their lives while the babies grow in the safety of being able to hide amongst Marine Polyspeculates to avoid predators since they haven't adapted a fowl taste just yet like the adults which causes most potential predators to spit them out or will eat the predator that has swallowed them from the inside of their body, cutting holes within their body until they can swim out and escape and because of this, not very many creatures can eat them but thankfully, the species isn't invasive quite yet since very few of the young fry survive the journey to the ocean or fail to escape predators in time and so very few adults are seen swimming amongst the Coral reefs but they aren't very scarce either because schools usually contain around 20 members while smaller schools contain around 5 members. Since they lack pectoral fins and various other fins commonly seen on most Earth fish, their long body dorsal fin undulates to help them swim throughout the water, it's actually quite effective despite their small, strange body shape and it allows them to move quicker than some larger sea creatures but sometimes it's not very effective and causes them to become sluggish which is why they prefer hiding amongst coral reef for protection against predators who can withstand the bitter tasting mucus the adult's bodies are covered in. When their young fry hatch from eggs, the rely on their yolk sac to provide nutrients until their mouth has allows them to filter feed on the algae and plankton floating amongst the brackish rainforest pools and then when they've used up their yolk sac and eaten enough to grow larger, they become parasites and make the long journey to the ocean where they will spend the rest of their lives until they reach adulthood and will travel to the nearest brackish rainforest pool and will breed there and then return to the ocean and continue their lives in the ocean while their young will hatch and continue the cycle. They usually live up to 25 years old but some don't make it past 2 years in the Rainforest waters due to large airborne predators who swoop in from above like Earth's Pelicans and this causes a panic amongst the young fry who will hide under any nearby items to protect themselves but unfortunately, very few survive long enough to reach adulthood and keep the population growing but there are safety in numbers since tons of young manage to survive but by hiding near the sides of larger creatures who don't seem to know they're there since they're extremely gentle and soft due to not having the fowl tasting mucus yet but the reason they don't seem to know they're there is if they bump into them accidentally. To a large creature, this just feels like a gentle tap from a current of water or a small pebble getting swept off the seafloor. Adults usually weigh around 250g and grow to 6 inches in length while Fry weigh around 20g and grow to 2 inches in length. Adults are usually around the same size as an Adult Gold Stripe Maroon Clownfish back on Earth's very own coral reefs however just like a Clownfish they aren't fast swimmers and undulate their fin to swim through the water but the little point on their fin never bends naturally even when swimming because since it has a very simple body style, it often struggles to swim fast but is very agile and quick to react to danger from above or from below them. One example of their common predator is the Shark jaw Penguin, a flightless bird adapted for using it's body to swim faster through the water to chase after small fish but mostly Cascade Sun, they will often skim the surface from above by using their flamingo styled feet to walk along coral reefs which is where they tend to build their nests on nearby islands but some are willing to fully dive underwater and chase their prey. As mentioned earlier, Cascade sun are their favorites since once they skim the bitter mucus, they enjoy their soft purple meat within the Cascade Sun's body. They may be small but they aren't very nutritional to most creatures since they are unable to skim the mucus off their bodies but the Shark jaw Penguins can. Cascade sun often struggle to avoid their beak because it splits open to resemble a shark's jaws with a beak full of teeth that are used to pierce the fast moving Cascade Sun and skim their slimy protective bitter mucus. Cascade Sun have a very simple anatomy, but that doesn't mean you should think less of this wonderful alien fish! Their anatomy is similar to that of most Earthly fish which makes them easier to pinpoint and identify their organs and see what makes this small vertebrate another successor of evolution of life on another yet equally similar planet. Their olfactory bulb allows them to detect certain changes in their environment since they lack nostrils to identify scents and if something feels off to them, their body will send a signal to the brain which triggers their fight or flight system.Category:Ocean Category:Dispeculata